Chapter 154: A Figure
“Did they see us too?” Li Xiaonan craned her neck to look.
“It seems they did. Don’t look that way. Let’s just pretend we didn’t see them!” Wan Jing lowered her gaze.
“If they saw you seeing them, wouldn’t you have to go over and pay your respects or something?” Li Xiaonan also turned her head away from looking that way.
“I’m on duty. Why would I pay respects? Even if I weren’t on duty, I’d just lower my gaze and avoid them. Going over to pay respects is called fawning.”
“If that’s the case, why pretend we didn’t see them?” Li Xiaonan immediately pressed.
“If we look and our eyes meet, what if she beckons us over? Should we go or not?” Wan Jing couldn’t help but glance sideways at Li Xiaonan.
“That’s true. She’s so thin, it’s pitiful.” Li Xiaonan couldn’t help but glance again.
“Stop looking and let’s go!” Wan Jing urged, quickening her pace.
Wan Jing followed a servant from the library, and Li Xiaonan followed Wan Jing, entering a library building.
The servant gestured to a long desk by the window and retreated to the doorway, hands clasped.
“Right, Shi Gun mentioned that according to the Young Lord, this building doesn’t contain books, but archives. You can only read them, not copy them,” Wan Jing instructed, then walked to a nearby tea table to boil water and make tea.
Dozens of booklets of varying sizes and thicknesses were piled on the long desk. Li Xiaonan found a comfortable spot and buried her head in reading.
She read until the sun began to set, having only gone through one or two-tenths of the large pile of booklets.
Li Xiaonan put down the booklet in her hand, stood up, and stretched her neck, arms, and waist.
“Tired?” Gu Yan’s voice came from the doorway.
Li Xiaonan jumped in surprise.
“Tomorrow I’ll have someone teach you the Five Animal Frolics or the Eight Brocades. Look at yourself,” Gu Yan said with a look of disdain.
Just as Li Xiaonan opened her mouth to retort, her peripheral vision caught sight of the booklets on the long desk, and she swallowed her words.
Never mind. Seeing how considerate he was, she’d let this one slide.
Seeing Li Xiaonan clearly swallow her words, Gu Yan looked surprised and studied her, “What? Not convinced?”
“You’re right. Thank you.” Li Xiaonan pointed to the archives on the long desk and glanced at Shi Gun, who stood by the door with his hands clasped.
She had to thank Shi Gun quietly, so that this Young Lord wouldn’t know. Otherwise, he would surely blame Wan Jing for talking too much and might even deduct Wan Jing’s monthly allowance.
Gu Yan raised his eyebrows in surprise, took a step closer, and examined Li Xiaonan carefully, “Were you wronged? Or did your Eldest Sister scold you?”
“Neither. You helped me pick out so many useful things, I didn’t expect it, and I didn’t know your family had these things,” Li Xiaonan said, pointing to the long desk.
“So you’ve become sensible.” Gu Yan’s tone was exaggerated. “Truly rare!”
Li Xiaonan glanced sideways at Gu Yan.
“How was lunch? Shall I send you another dinner? What would you like to eat?” Gu Yan sat down on the large chair by the window.
Li Xiaonan hesitated.
“The freshwater shrimp in this lake are excellent,” Gu Yan added quickly.
“Make them braised shrimp, with a spoonful of fermented bean curd,” Li Xiaonan replied.
“It’s quiet here, let’s eat here.” Gu Yan beckoned Li Xiaonan to sit beside him and pointed to a small mountain across the lake. The few houses on the mountain, along with the mountain and lake scenery, were extremely harmonious.
“That is where my great-grandfather and great-grandmother spent their final years. My great-grandfather passed away first, falling asleep and never waking up, dying peacefully. A year later, my great-grandmother achieved meditative death,” Gu Yan said, his tone carrying an indescribable sense of emotion and feeling.
Li Xiaonan looked carefully at the houses and the small mountain, “Can people really achieve meditative death?”
“Yes, my great-grandmother was no ordinary person. She left Prince Rui’s Mansion with a treasure,” Gu Yan said, looking at Li Xiaonan. After a moment, he smiled and asked, “Would you like to see it?”
“I can see it?” Li Xiaonan was very surprised. “It’s hidden in this building?”
“This treasure has been carried by successive Princes Rui,” Gu Yan lowered his head, unfastened the narrow sword hanging inside his long gown, and offered it to Li Xiaonan.
Li Xiaonan took two steps forward, but didn’t take it. She only stretched her head forward to look carefully.
Gu Yan smiled. After she had looked, he turned it over for her to see again. After she had looked again, Gu Yan gently drew out half an inch, and the narrow sword gleamed coldly.
Li Xiaonan took two steps back and instinctively hissed, “Put it away. It looks painful.”
Gu Yan raised his eyebrows, “Painful?”
“This sword is too sharp. Just looking at it makes me feel pain,” Li Xiaonan retreated further.
She was afraid of overly sharp blades, always instinctively feeling that the blade would pierce her chest, and the thought of it was excruciatingly painful.
Gu Yan sheathed the sword, held it, and looked at Li Xiaonan, his face unreadable, a mixture of joy and sorrow.
She was Lu Xiu, who had drunk the soup of forgetfulness from the underworld. She hadn’t drunk it all, or perhaps the pain was too deeply etched. Even after drinking a whole bowl of the soup of forgetfulness, it hadn’t completely erased that pain.
When Lu Xiu held this sword and plunged it into her chest, she only murmured, “It hurts a little.”
It must have been excruciatingly painful; she remembered it always.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Li Xiaonan waved her hand in front of Gu Yan.
“Nothing. How is your business?” Gu Yan abruptly changed the subject.
“Quite good. Everyone who should have come has come, just as I expected,” Li Xiaonan said vaguely. “What about your Maritime Tax Bureau? You said last time you wanted to make them fight, did they fight?”
Li Xiaonan didn’t want him to know about the struggles she was facing. She felt that if he knew, he might not stand by idly, but she didn’t want him to interfere in these struggles. This was her matter, and she could handle it herself.
“They were fierce, but luckily I stopped them.” Gu Yan briefly recounted the night’s ambush and capture, “…one person was beaten with several rattan canes, their skin broke and they bled a little, but they were all released.”
“Are you trying to make the entire wharf settle accounts one by one?” Li Xiaonan asked.
Gu Yan laughed, nodding as he laughed.
Compared to Lu Xiu, her intelligence surpassed hers.
“And the next step? I always feel that the twists and turns in this matter are definitely not just about the wharf. Are the people above the porters getting anxious?” Li Xiaonan thought for a moment and asked.
“Yes, layers of mechanisms. Let’s see how they respond first, then we’ll talk about the next step,” Gu Yan said with a smile.
“You said last time that the Crown Prince was coming?” Li Xiaonan leaned forward.
“Yes.”
“His arrival, is it good or not so good for your investigation of the Maritime Tax Bureau?” Li Xiaonan lowered her voice.
“Good, but we need to make them feel something is wrong,” Gu Yan also leaned forward and lowered his voice.
“So it’s an act? The Crown Prince is acting?” Li Xiaonan’s head stretched forward a bit more.
“Yes! Clever.” Gu Yan raised his hand and tapped Li Xiaonan on the nose.
Shi Gun, along with several servants, brought in a round table and quickly set it up. The sky was already dim, and the servants lit candles. The dishes were also brought up quickly.
In the water pavilion in the distance, in a patch of darkness, Miss Shi sat half-reclined on a sofa, looking at the silhouettes of people in the window of the library building. The figures flickered incessantly, like the shadow puppets she had watched as a child.
